Lawyer Ratings Site Immune From Suit, Organization Claims

A civil rights organization has taken up the cause of online attorney reviews, asking a Northern District judge to protect a Sunnyvale-based website from litigation threats.

LawyerRatingz.com is the latest online reputation site to come under fire from businesses receiving negative feedback. San Francisco rating website Yelp Inc. has been sued several times for its handling of negative reviews, while doctor review sites have faced pressure to suppress undesirable commentary.

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But Stanford Law Professor Mark A. Lemley thought Chen's interpretation would hold in the Ratingz case.

"Section 230 creates an absolute immunity for sites like LawyerRatingz as long as they are merely hosting or reporting comments made by others," Lemley wrote in a email. "So I expect the EFF will win this case, perhaps quite quickly on an early summary judgment, unless there are some special facts of which I am unaware."